Thoughts on Street Fighter x Mega Man

Street Fighter x Mega Man was released a few hours ago in celebration of Mega Man's otherwise sparse 25th Anniversary. This game was originally a fangame which would have been released at some point anyway, but it got picked up by Capcom at some point and became an 'official' freeware release. Having just played it to completion, I figured I may as well hop on the Internet bandwagon and give some of my thoughts on what I believe it did right and what it did wrong.

What it did right:

The Boss Fights - In a game called Street Fighter X Mega Man the crossover boss fights are bound to be one of the biggest drawing points and this game certainly does not disappoint. Every boss has quite a large arsenal of signature attacks at his or her disposal and the result is some of the most frantic boss fights in any Mega Man game. Bosses even have power meters which fill up as they give and receive damage which they can in turn utilize to perform special attacks. It's certainly a nice change of pace from the standard Mega Man bosses who may be challenging, but who usually only have one or two actual attacks and a predictable movement pattern.

The Weapons - A somewhat more debatable strength would be the weapons in this game. There are a few ones which range from terribly to rarely useful, perhaps most notably Chun-Li's kick as it barely deals any damage and has horrible range, but for the most part I found myself utilizing the majority of the weapons frequently. In addition, the weapons are not only useful, but also very fun to use and no single weapon takes center stage. Lastly, many of the weapons can actually be on the screen at the same time, allowing players to combine abilities in creative ways to overcome various obstacles.

The Enemies - Normal enemies in this game are surprisingly brutal and are often very entertaining to fight. Just about every stage has one or two normal enemy types which can easily take away a big chunk of Mega Man's health if they're underestimated. This strength also ties back into the strength of the weapons as players will frequently find themselves switches between weapons to deal with most enemies instead of just relying purely on the mega buster. Enemies also often work together well to create some very chaotic moments and have a nice amount of variety.

What it did wrong:

Level Design - This is easily the weakest part of the game and it's rather a shame since this is where the series usually shines. While the enemies are fun to fight, levels tend to either be astoundingly short or tediously long and rarely hit a length which feels 'just right'. Level gimmicks are also not used to their full advantage and usually will appear a little bit at the beginning of a level only to completely disappear in favor of very linear corridors filled with enemies. Spikes and instant death pits are both surprisingly rare and enemies are generally only challenging because of their own abilities, not because they are placed particularly well nor because they work well alongside environmental hazards. Mini/midbosses have also been an expected part of the series nearly since the beginning and range anywhere from fire-spewing lions to miniature castles, but are completely absent here and, when paired up with the focus being more on combat than upon level gimmicks, this absence greatly contributes to the levels often feeling very bland despite the fun normal enemies.

The 'Fortress Stages' - While I have already listed level design as one of this game's faults, it's worth drawing particular attention to the fortress stages as these are simply disappointing. Aside from the final boss and the obligatory boss refight stage, there are a mere two fortress stages. Furthermore, one of these two stages consists entirely of a gimmicky boss fight which involves little more than rapidly sliding to the right, meaning there is a grand total of one full-length 'stage' in the fortress. As for this stage itself, it starts off fairly strong by tossing various enemies at the player which can best be overcome by utilizing multiple weapons, but the second half is completely forgettable. The fortress stages are normally where players need to utilize all their skills simply to survive and progress, where the mega buster just doesn't cut it if players want to make it to the boss with as little damage as possible, so the severe lack of fortress content is more than a little disappointing.

 The Music - Now, let me start this off by saying that the music in the game is technically rather nice, but runs into two issues. First, it doesn't seem to quite be balanced right with the sound effects as just about any attack by either Mega Man or an enemy will drown it out to the point where I often decided not to bother charging the mega buster just so that I could hear the music at all. Secondly, the music is catchy, but doesn't seem to be altogether 'new'; Many of the songs in the game are either remixes of or borrow heavily from songs from previous games in the series to the point, which isn't necessarily bad, especially considering the fact that this game is meant to celebrate Mega Man's 'anniversary', but it is an odd choice all the same. Overall, the music is nice, but doesn't live up to the high standard set by many other entries in the series.


In the end, I would say Street Fighter x Mega Man is certainly an enjoyable game, but also a disappointing one. The boss fights are fantastic and highly enjoyable, many of the weapons are both useful and fun to use, and many normal enemies put up a good fight. However, the strength of the original series has always been in its level design and its interesting gimmicks, from Quick Man's lasers to Tornado Man's spinning platforms, and this entry simply falls flat on its face in this regard; levels aren't designed poorly, this isn't another X6 by any stretch of the imagination, but they are painfully bland and mechanics are not even remotely used to their fullest potential here. Combine the bland level design with the nearly nonexistent fortress stages and music which ranges from 'ok' to 'good' and you definitely have quite the mixed bag in this game. Despite its flaws, it's hard not to recommend this unusual game to any fans of the Mega Man series and Capcom certainly could have done far worse for Mega Man's 25th Anniversary.


The original announcement trailer can be found here.
The official download can be found here.
If the above link does not work, a reliable backup download can be found on this OCRemix thread here.

New Video Series Starting

I am starting up a new video series on YouTube about boss fights. This series will feature a single boss fight from various freeware games across multiple genres. In each case, a boss fight will be picked which I think shows off the strengths of its respective game. These videos will serve both as guides and as a way of showing off interesting fights which may in turn help to introduce people to various games which they may have previously been unaware of. Unlike the Lazy Brain Games videos, this is going to be a more long-term series with only one or two videos per week to form what will hopefully eventually become a respectable collection of dozens of fights from various games.

For the first video, I chose one of the harder fights from Shukumei Star 2,  a multi-part boss consisting of an Eye and a Lens which requires players to constantly be on the defensive in order to counter a barrage of devastating spells while also launching their own attacks whenever possible.

This inaugural video for the series can be found here.
My YouTube page upon which this and other videos are uploaded at is here.

Game Alert - Shukumei Star Series

It's been quite a while since I last did a Game Alert for an RPG, so let me make up for it a bit by recommending two at the same time.

Shukumei Star is a series which currently consists of two games made using RPG Maker 2003. Both games are very similar aside from one major difference which I'll get around to later so I'll mainly be talking about the series as a whole rather than focusing too much on each game individually. These games certainly won't appeal to all RPG fans, but those who enjoy them will easily get 15+ hours out of each entry. Well, that's enough of an introduction, so let's get started!

And let me start by noting that these are by no means games which should be played for the plot and this will almost certainly be the main dividing factor.  Character motivations are often vague, nonexistent, or confusing to the point that protagonists and antagonists alike seem unsure as to why they are doing things. The first game basically boils down to 'an evil person wants to take over the world and you have to stop him' while the second game is the same except with various plot points from the Final Fantasy series such as four elemental crystals and the presence of a big 'evil corporation' trying to rule the world. Just about every plot point has been done many times before and done better.

On the opposite side of the quality spectrum is the sense of exploration and discovery these games have to offer. While there is a linear plot which requires you to go to certain places in a certain order, the Shukumei Star series is brimming with secrets just waiting to be found. Doing a thorough search of any given village will not only lead to finding some handy items hidden away in various objects like in most RPG's, but it may also lead to a sidequest, a hidden boss fight, or even a secret character. Both games also take a Chrono Trigger approach to optional content by really opening up the world right before the grand finale and allowing players to access many new areas which previously could not be reached. Dungeons themselves often have various optional puzzles, hidden treasures, and secret items which can only be found upon revisiting a dungeon later in the game. Even after many hours of hunting for secrets it is unlikely that a person will discover everything hidden within these games and it's not an exaggeration to say that searching for and completing optional and hidden content will just about double the length of either entry.

Random encounters like this one are surprisingly common in both games.

Combat is another high point of the series. While it does nothing particularly new and the ATB system moves at an overly slow pace at low levels, the combat in Shukumei Star games is, overall, very enjoyable for several reasons. First, there is actually a large focus upon support skills in these games as a failure to keep up buffs on the party, debuff the enemy, and counter any status ailments or self-buffs enemies may toss out can easily lead to a Game Over even during normal random encounters. Secondly, skill costs are appropriately balanced as skills which can deal large amounts of damage or which can fully heal the entire party both exist, but are so costly that they tend to only be viable for emergency situations, allowing lower-tier skills to still be entirely viable even by the end of the game. A final high point of the combat system comes from the encounters themselves as you'll see the standard groups of 2-4 or so enemies during random encounters, but every area in both entries also has one or two miniboss-esque random encounters against a particularly nasty single enemy and such encounters ensure that exploring a dungeon never feels tedious as they keep the tension high.

Speaking of dungeons, this brings me to the final major strength of the series - dungeon design. Dungeons throughout both games vary wildly in size from short caves which will only take about fifteen minutes to get through to massive multi-floor labyrinths filled with multiple bosses which can take hours to complete. I already mentioned how dungeons are filled with hidden areas and treasure, but nearly every dungeon also has a special gimmick which makes it unique. These gimmicks can vary wildly and are often very creative, taking on the form of anything from needing to use a dungeon-specific item to detect hidden traps to a dungeon with rotating floors which causes doors to lead to different places over time. These gimmicks help to ensure that each dungeon is thematically consistent with its aesthetic and prevent the games from feeling repetitive as you'll have to constantly learn to navigate around the various tricks and traps unique to each dungeon.

Lastly, I mentioned at the start of the article that there was a single notable difference between the two games, so it's about time that I covered just what that difference is. The first game has an 'abacus system' and players can search around the world for fifty stars which, in addition to granting stat boosts, play into the abacus system. There is no easy way to explain this system, though it is simpler than it may sound. Basically, each character starts the bottom row of a column in the abacus and each column represents a certain type of magic, such as summoning or wind. Every seven stars collected moves the characters up one row in the abacus and teaches them the skill they landed on in addition to one other skill. However, players can set the path each character will take in advance by choosing if the next movement will simply be up the same column, over one column to the left, or over right column to the right; players can also set the 'pointer', which points either left and right and upon advancement a character will learn both the skill moved onto as well as the respective skill from the column the pointer is aimed at. It's an interesting and unique system to say the least, but it is also rather counter-productive as there is no way to reset choices and players will need to either actively avoid collecting stars until the end of the game to prevent advancement up the abacus or have characters acquired later on become firmly locked into a default skill path.

The first game's abacus system is interesting, but flawed.

The second game takes a somewhat more traditional, but far more functional, approach to skills. Within the second game you can acquire over twenty characters and, aside from one or two particularly odd exceptions, each character comes with two things. First, every character has a set of magic which that character can learn by buying spells at a shop; spells are divided into three tiers and not every character can learn the highest tier spells, though some can learn every single low-tier spell. Secondly, every character has either a character-specific set of spells or skills which are gained through leveling up or a single 'gimmick' skill. For example, one character can learn every single 'white magic' spell in the game and has the 'Double' skill, which allows her to cast the same spell twice in a single turn at the cost of a temporary stat reduction, while another character can only learn the first two tiers of white magic, but has exclusive access to the Holy set of spells which are learned as he levels up and which deal light-elemental damage to enemies. Furthermore, the second game has two protagonists and consistently requires players to split characters into two teams of four so that a good amount of the large cast actually gets used.

Shukumei Star is an interesting series not only because its games serve as examples of RPG's which are enjoyable despite having poor stories, but also because it revitalizes the sense of exploration at a time when many RPG's are becoming increasingly linear and formulaic. While by no means perfect, these games are certain to be excellent additions to the library of anyone looking for good dungeon crawlers and they excel in all the areas they focus upon.

The first game in the series can be found here.
The sequel can be found here.

Game Alert - Desperate Gods

If you've been living under a rock lately (or just don't visit sites related to indie gaming or are reading this several months/years in the future, those work too), you've probably never heard of Desperate Gods. Otherwise, you've likely have at least heard the name and, hopefully, have played it. Regardless of if you have or have not in fact heard of this game, let's take a look at it and why it works:

Desperate Gods is a board game simulator for up to four players either locally or online and it was made in about a week for a game jam. The goal is to move around the board between four sections, each section has a unique deck filled almost entirely with monsters, and the goal is to defeat every monster in the game. Combat is simply a matter of rolling equal to or higher than a number on a monster's card and each monster is worth some money for buying items and victory points; once all the monsters have been defeated the players tally up the victory points of the monsters they have defeated and the player with the most wins. Many spaces do something other than letting the player draw a card and there's a bit more to it than that, but it's simple enough.

A typical game of Desperate Gods

Now, as a game in the traditional sense, Desperate Gods is not all that good. It can take over half the duration of a game to clear the hardest of the four decks, the decks for the larger, easier areas have barely any cards, items are unbalanced, and much of the wording in the game is horribly vague. Absolutely none of this matters though as the key word in the paragraph above is 'simulation'.

Desperate Gods is very clever in that, other than limiting room capacity to four players, it makes use of none of the 'additional restrictions/features' video game versions of boardgames usually have. Players don't simply click on dice to roll them, they must be picked up and shaken. Likewise, cards must be physically picked up from a deck, flipped over, and rotated and decks themselves can be combined and tossed around. There is no message which pops up to inform a player that it is their turn because there is no system in place to prevent players from doing stuff when it is not their turn and players themselves must decide when their turn begins and when it ends. Nothing pops up to say the game is over once the monsters are all defeated and players must manually count their victory points. You can accidentally move another player's piece, miscount spaces moved, forget to drag some silver coins over to your inventory card when you've defeated a monster and, in short, do just about anything other than move the board itself and throw stuff off the table. The game gives you a board and all its pieces along with a brief set of rules in a separate Read-Me file and then lets you interact with it however you want.

Another typical game of Desperate Gods

And that's all there is to it. It's a painfully, brilliantly simply concept, a virtual board game where players are able to freely interact with it, but all the bells and whistles which usually come with video game boardgames are things which I think many of us have simply taken to be natural and mandatory in video game adaptations and I really can't think of any game which does something even remotely similar to this (and I bet you'll have trouble thinking of such a game too, though feel free to note one in the comments section if one comes to mind). Even the vague wording on many spaces and cards works in favor of Desperate Gods as it encourages discussion and debate between players on how to interpret it, something which would never occur in other video game board games as the game would inevitably automatically do whatever it's trying to tell you it does. If you're looking for a masterpiece of game design and balance, this isn't it, but Desperate Gods brings some great innovation to the genre which I hope we'll see more of in the future and it's extremely fun to play with friends, especially with voice chat.

Of course, if all this still isn't enough reason to go try out this game-simulation-thing, I should mention that not only is it still being worked on and updated, but that it is also fully open source. At the time of this writing, there are already mods to expand the amount of players to 6, to make  the game fully mouse controlled, and a few other things along with many mods in the works to add in new cards or even to easily let players make their own cards. So, go give Desperate Gods a try - at the very least you're likely to have fun throwing cards and coins all over the place.

The game and a video can be found here: http://www.wolfire.com/desperate-gods

Game Alert: Lazy Brain Games

As this post will be covering over a dozen games, you can think of this as a series of mini-reviews/recommendations. For those unfamiliar with Lazy Brain Games, it is an indie developer specializing in created, short, fast games. It is rare for a game to last more than 10-15 minutes and many of them are shorter even than this, but they have plenty of polish, charm, and replay value. No two games are quite the same, though they all have a retro aesthetic and nods to other games (both previous games made by Lazy Brain Games and more famous games), and can range anywhere from multi-stage platformers to endless single-screen shoot-em-ups. As this post is already going to be quite lengthy, let's get started:

Crystal Wave: The first game by Lazy Brain Games and it definitely shows. While not terrible, Crystal Wave is far too simplistic for its own good. This is a single-screen endless shooter where players only have one life and, like all of the games on this list, can compete for an online high score. There are only four enemy types and large crystals which the player can collect for points; enemies and crystals speed up over time, but the game otherwise remains the same throughout. Despite its shortcomings, Crystal Wave is rather important as just about everything in this game shows up in at least one later game. To name a few examples, the entirely score-based crystals here are used to generate mana in Necro Gaia, the bomb gauge in the bottom right shows up again in a modified form in Omnicron, and the invincible giant C-shaped enemy appears in both Cyborg Virus in a killable form and in Techno-Drone in another invincible form.

Sky Scream: This is a noticeable improvement over Crystal Wave in just about every way. Sky Scream consists of one brief level and feels like a shoot-em-up boss rush, but is very satisfying. Although the aesthetics in Crystal Wave aren't bad, Sky Scream is much more colorful and has a fantastic sense of unique style along with a (much) catchier song and even a brief plot. It may have also started the trend of referencing other games, something which many of the later games by Lazy Brain Games do, as the boss in the screenshot to the left looks nearly identical to the powerup-carrying ships from R-Type. Since this is a vertical shooter where the protagonist is literally falling, Sky Scream includes the subtle, yet very nice, touch of making the player move faster when moving downwards compared to when moving in other directions. Sky Scream is still probably one of the weaker games here, but it's a good game in its own right and is a massive step forward from Crystal Wave.

Factorium: Of all the games on this list, Factorium may be the most important as it solidified the combination of innovative and familiar gameplay which nearly all later games by Lazy Brain Games rely upon. In this case, Factorium may initially seem like a compliment to Sky Scream as it is a single-level horizontal shooter. However, while Sky Scream largely stuck to the familiar aside from the direction of movement, Factorium features a combat system which is both unique and intuitive. Players can't spam attacks and instead must wait for each attack's gauge to fill up before clicking and dragging it onto the screen; abilities unlock one at a time so players are never overwhelmed and there is no need for any tutorial other than a single screen showing basic controls at the start. Factorium is not a particularly challenging game and is about on par with Sky Scream in terms of fun, but players will need to learn which abilities are best used against which enemies and when in order to achieve a high score, so it does have some replay value.

Cyborg Virus: Another single-screen game, but this one has an actual boss and an ending. Cyborg Virus features the gimmick of being able to use a grappling hook which can both freeze enemies and (usually) pull them towards you. However, the only way to actually kill most enemy types is to hit them with a close-range shock attack. The two abilities compliment each other nicely and there's plenty of enemy variety so it's easily the most fun game discussed so far in my opinion, though it does lack the sense of energy present in Sky Scream and Factorium. There is also a gimmick where if players step outside of giant bubbles for too long a gauge will gradually fill up and kill them, but the gauge fills up so slowly that this rarely feels like a threat. The music in this one is far more laid-back than usual, but Lazy Brain Games's trademark creative and frantic gameplay combined with nostalgic retro aesthetics are in full bloom in Cyborg Virus. 

Runner Gunner: While not a particularly innovative game, Runner Gunner is different from other existing games by Lazy Brain Games in a number of ways. Most notably, it takes place from a top-down perspective and, though it still only consists of a single level, the player manually walks through the level instead of automatically scrolling through it. Players also need to go backwards through the level on a time limit once they hit a self-destruct button at the end and the initial lack of a time limit paired with infinitely-spawning enemies is a noticeable flaw as it makes the online high score list rather arbitrary. Despite the score-related oversight, Runner Gunner is a very solid, short game, but the gameplay is very standard compared to many of the other creations by Lazy Brain Games, so there isn't much else which can be said about it.

Space Fish: This is, without a doubt, the game which deviates the most from the formula. While other games here are all fairly short, Space Fish features a massive 42 levels so it feels the most like a 'full' game, though each level rarely lasts more than a few seconds. Players need to hop between water tiles in order to collect all the olives on a level and making use of the camera to pan around a level in advance is often a necessity. Unfortunately, this may be an example of quantity over quality as I do not think Space Fish is one of the better games by this developer. Part of it has to do with the sheer amount of content in the game; new gimmicks and enemies stop appearing less than halfway through and the rather catchy background song wears thin after 42 levels. The other issue is the physics-based controls when it comes to using the 'jackknifing' technique, which involves clicking the edge of a water tile to go soaring through the sky. Games but Lazy Brain Games generally all feature very tight controls and Space Fish starts out as no exception to this rule, but jackknifing, which gets introduced about a third of the way through, is far too unwieldy and is likely to be far more frustrating than fun for anyone other than those who really enjoy physics for the sake of physics.

Bug Hunt: Bug Hunt is the first endless arcade-style game since Crystal Wave and is even more simplistic, but is very addicting. Players control a lizard who remains at the bottom of the screen while various bugs fly around overhead; players need to move the protagonist's tongue up and down to catch flies and dragonflies while avoiding bees. The game is over after taking a single hit, but Bug Hunt moves at such a rapid pace that this hardly matters. Although the lower levels are almost painfully slow, players can choose to start from any level up to 7. Bugs both move notably faster and are worth more points each level, but players advance every 5000 points so points and levels fly by faster the farther in players go. It's a fun, fast-paced game of risk vs. reward and is definitely worth checking out.

Mecha Spider Isle: The final game of 'Season 1' and a pretty nice way to round out the season at that. Mecha Spider Isle is a vertical platformer which frequently switches between hopping around between platforms with the giraffe-frog protagonist and riding in a mecha spider cart around somewhat maze-like spiderweb segments. It consists of four stages, a boss, and four optional 'bonus areas', but still takes less than twenty minutes to finish. The weapon in this game is a gun which starts out pathetically weak, but gets all sorts of fun additions as it upgrades and it can easily shred through everything at max power. One touch which I'm particularly fond of is the score screen which pops up after reaching the flag at the end of each segment as this screen shows a neat vertical map of the entire game, which is reminiscent of maps for other nostalgic vertical platformers like Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers. There is some unexplainable slowdown at certain parts of the game, but it is otherwise a very fun, lively vertical platformer filled with references, nostalgic callbacks, and secrets.

Omnicron: The first game of Season 2 and a massive leap up in quality over the already-polished games of Season 1, Omnicron is the first shoot-em-up since Factorium and may remind players of Ikaruga. While players can't shift between absorbing the two different types of attacks, any blue-colored projectiles can be clicked on to absorb them, which helps to give a boost to the bomb gauge. Unlike most shooters, Omnicron does not have a limited number of bombs and instead has a bomb gauge which fills up over time. The normal weapon is strong, but bombs are significantly stronger and a single hit completely downgrades the normal attack, so getting good at clicking blue projectiles in order to fuel the bomb gauge is essential. Although Omnicron has a fun stage, players will spend the majority of their time with the game fighting the many varied phases and forms of the Omnicron itself. Overall, this is a great boss-focused shoot-em-up and an excellent way to open a new season of games.

 Infernal Edge: This seems to be the favorite game by Lazy Brain Games for many people and I probably have to agree. Though it only features one stage as usual, Infernal Edge has a rather lengthy stage complete with three boss fights and plenty of hazard. Players cannot jump and instead constantly climb up and down and switch between walls by using a grappling hook; it's sort of like Contra meets Bionic Commando in space. There are all sorts of hazards ranging from turrets to crushers to razorblades along with many other dangers which frequently get paired together in the latter half of the game. Perspective also plays a big role as the angle at which the protagonist is climbing frequently shifts and the controls shift at various points from W and S to A and D in order to match the camera angle. The first two bosses are mainly just 'puzzle bosses' where players need to figure out how to damage them and how to avoid their attacks, but the final boss has quite a few tricks up its sleeve and combines gimmicks from the first two battles with various attacks of its own. Needless to say, Infernal Edge is definitely worth checking out.

Techno-Drone: Another presumably endless single-screen arcade game, but this one has a ton of variety and is my favorite of the endless high score-driven games. Players control a 'base' and an extendable arm attachment used to attack enemies. If enemies touch the base it loses health, but avoiding enemies is quite the challenge as the base swings around as you move the attached arm in order to attack, so players must achieve a careful balance between offense and defense. Furthermore, attacking drains energy, so simply holding down the attack button or spamming attacks won't last long and will leave players defenseless. Enemies come in waves and the game noticeably 'loops' after only a handful of these waves, but the second loop features entirely different gimmicks, such as the screen going dark periodically during the first wave of this loop, strong winds blowing the player around during the second wave, giant enemies in the third wave, and so on. There are also plenty of powerups, such as a damage shield and temporary infinite energy, which are all fun to use, but it can feel at times like how successful a playthrough is depends on how often and when the health-restoring powerup appears. Techno-Drone is a game which feels truly unique and has an upbeat and energetic style to it which always ensures that it is a fun game to go back to.

Necro Gaia: Despite being made in a mere 24 hours for a Ludum Dare contest, Necro Gaia maintains the high level of quality, polish, and creativity found in the other Season 2 games. Players control the planet Terra and the only direct form of movement available is to speed up Terra's orbit around its sun. The combat system works a bit like that of Factorium as players click and drag planets onto the screen which serve various functions, not all of which are attacks. However, instead of the gauge-filling system of Factorium, Necro Gaia has players collect mana crystals and players can place as many planets on the screen as they desire as long as they have the mana to do so, though planets only last for a few seconds. Terra itself also can aid in combat as it casts a shadow and any enemies caught within this shadow become much slower. Lastly, Necro Gaia has a neat final boss battle which serves as a sort of puzzle where players need to put together all the knowledge of the game's mechanics they've acquired through play in order to emerge victorious.  

 Selectra: The newest game by Lazy Brain Games is yet another Ludum Dare entry and is certainly one of the weirdest games on this list, though it is unfortunately what I consider the weakest of the Season 2 games so far. Selectra is yet another sidescrolling shoot-em-up, but with the twist of playing as an alien fertility goddess with a 'mating' system which, despite sounding like 'mature content', is very silly and about as family-friendly as such a concept can be. There are various enemies which can belong to any of three different elements and players must charge up their attack, a giant energy ball, before firing it. Though players can rapidly click to change the direction the energy ball is heading in and therefore hit enemies multiple times, Selectra starts off far too weak to kill anything. Thankfully, Selectra can solve this issue by rescuing men who float around the screen periodically trapped inside of giant bubbles. Freeing a man from a bubble will make him latch onto Selectra and attacking will become impossible until players select to go into a mating screen, which will show the potential child which Selectra will be reborn as if players accept the mate in question. Being reborn usually grants a significant power increase to Selectra's attacks, but switching Selectra's element usually results in a power decrease which can still be useful as enemies tend to come in waves of one element type or another. In addition, Selectra's movement speed and the time it takes to actually charge up an attack become slower with higher power levels to the point that a power level over 600 or so does far more harm than good, so players need to constantly balance element, power, and speed. While this sounds like a neat way to introduce RPG mechanics to a shoot-em-up, constantly needing to access the mating screen in order to accept or reject potential mates really kills the flow of the game and once a player learns to keep Selectra's power levels around the 400-600 range enemies become completely nonthreatening to the point that even the element-shifting final boss can go down in a handful of hits. Overall, Selectra is innovative and silly, and it's a testament to Lazy Brain Games's craftsmanship that a game with such a seemingly complex system can be understood via play with very little in the way of tutorials, but the 24-hour deadline shows as it simply lacks the polish present in many of the other creations of Lazy Brain Games.


These are all the games by Lazy Brain Games for now. They frequently combine fast-paced and familiar gameplay with gimmicks which are both innovative and intuitive and they are always wrapped in an aesthetically-pleasing package with catchy music and vibrant colors. There will likely be at least three more games in Season 2 and I plan to give each of these lengthier individual reviews as well as video playthroughs as they come out. For now, here are some useful links:

All of these games can be downloaded from the official Lazy Brain Games homepage: http://lazybraingames.com/
Full playthrough videos for all of these games can be found on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Seeric

Video Game Death Penalties Part 2

It's been a while and a certain hurricane certainly didn't help matters, but here is, at last, the second part of Video Game Death Penalties. In this part, we'll be looking at common death penalties found in MMORPG's and how they differ in function from the penalties common to single player games.

Durability Loss: This is almost certainly the most common one. In such cases, equipment has a durability value which slowly goes down over time, but which decreases by a significant amount, usually 10%, upon death. Although this usually only results in needing to pay a small fee to a blacksmith NPC, sometimes the repair costs are significant and in rare cases the maximum durability on an item can even go down either through death or through repair. Like many other penalties in this section, this penalty is simply annoying and is designed as a timesink; even low repair fees can add up quickly over the course of a game and dying one too many times in the middle of a dungeon or simply when out questing means a player will need to make the long trip all the way back to town to repair just to then head back to where he or she was, assuming said player doesn't die yet again and incur even more durability loss during the trip.

Corpse Run: Before Durability Loss really took off as the most popular penalty, we had corpse running. In this case, you respawn in town, but all your gear is still on your corpse/tombstone where you died. So, unless you have a backup set of gear (unlikely), you are not going to be doing much in the way of combat until you sneak by all the enemies along the way to your corpse in order to recover your gear. This can of course take well over an hour if your corpse is far away from a town or if there are simply many aggressive enemies near it and chances are high that you'll die again even if you do get your corpse since, after all, something nearby killed you in the first place. It's a long, tedious process and was the perfect way to keep players occupied with a game which thrived off of monthly fees.

Ghost Run: This is a less severe, yet only slightly less annoying, equivalent of Corpse Running which was made popular by World of Warcraft. In this case, you still need to get back to your corpse, but you do so as a ghost which can't be attacked. This sounds better, but it also means you can't use a mount or anything else which grants a speed boost in the process of running back (unless the ghost form itself gives a small boost) and you can't do any non-combat activities along the way either, such as crafting in town or stopping to mine some rare ore along the way. You also usually revive with a low amount of health and mana with this penalty, so the chance of dying and needing to make the run again mere seconds after revival is even higher than with a Corpse Run penalty.

Wait to Revive: This is perhaps the most boring of all penalties, though developers generally try to 'validate' it by making it a progressive thing. In this case, a player can't revive right away and can't do anything at all until a timer ticks down to allow resurrection. The timer usually doesn't even appear unless the player has died multiple times within a few minutes, but once it starts racking up the timer can quickly rise to 2, 5, or even 10 minutes. This penalty is rarely found on its own and is most frequently paired up with Ghost Run and/or Durability Loss. When it's paired with Ghost Run the timer usually doesn't even start until the player is near his or her corpse and when all three penalties are present it can result in a nearly endless cycle of reviving with broken gear and low health only to die from one or two attacks a moment later and ever-so-slowly inching your way back to town as the amount of time you need to spend simply standing next to your corpse progressively rises.

Gear Loss: This is arguably the worst of the lot, though it's extremely rare at the current time. With this penalty, death has a chance to result in the permanent loss of a piece of worn equipment regardless of the item in question. Thus, a valuable weapon or piece of armor which may have taken months to either craft or to finally see drop from a boss can be instantly, permanently washed away by one careless death or even by something which the player cannot control, such as a disconnect or a large lag spike while in the middle of a fight. This penalty is likely one of the rarer ones because it's too harsh and a bit too obvious of a timesink and games which include it sometimes still grant a way to regain a lost item or to prevent a specific item from being lost in the first place, but it's never fun to deal with.

Corpse Looting: This is a favorite of PvP-based games, though it's not as common as it once was. Unlike Gear Loss where a piece of equipment can be forever lost, Corpse Looting allows any nearby players to loot your corpse upon death; in most games which include this penalty other players are limited to being able to take all of the gear worn by the dead player, but some games don't necessarily stop there and allow full inventory looting as well. This penalty can really be hit or miss since it can result in a single death leading to the loss of multiple items which took a significant amount of time to acquire, but it's just as easy to in turn loot valuable items from the corpse of someone else.

Experience Loss: One of the most obvious timesink penalties is Experience Loss. It pretty much does what it says; if a player dies, he or she looses a set percentage of experience points. In some games players can even delevel from this, which can be particularly bad if most of the equipment worn by a person was only usable at their former level, or go into 'negative experience', but usually the loss can only put players down to 0% experience into their current level. Oddly enough, this actually tends to be one of the lesser penalties since games which include it also usually have a way of mitigating loss or outright recovering lost experience and the penalty is virtually nonexistent if a player is only near the start of an existing level or is already at the level cap (assuming deleveling and negative experience do not apply of course). This penalty can, however, be particularly nasty if it's in a game which revolves around quest-based grind (i.e. simply killing normal enemies gives next to no experience compared to completing quests), though it is usually only found in games which rely upon more standard grinding methods.

Resurrection Sickness: A favorite of games which consist mostly or entirely of a town hub and instanced dungeons, though it can be found in others as well. Resurrection sickness allows a player to revive in town, or sometimes even at his or her corpse, with severely reduced stats. This means a player may be able to run around and gather materials, craft, or do other non-combat activities, but combat against worthwhile opponents is almost certainly out of the question, especially if playing solo. In games which rely upon a town hub system, Resurrection Sickness usually always occurs upon death for about 1-5 minutes, but more open games usually offer revival in town with Resurrection Sickness as an alternative to Ghost Running; it is usually possible to pay a high level-dependent fee to 'cure' resurrection sickness early, so players can choose between a timesink and a moneysink. Regardless of how it's implemented, Resurrection Sickness is decidedly one of the most notably boring penalties.

Money Loss: While this penalty is somewhat rare in MMORPG's, it's far from unheard of. Although this penalty is also frequently found in single-player RPG's, banks and jewels which buy and sell for the same price often mitigate the loss significantly. On the other hand, money loss in MMORPG's tends to be of a smaller percentage than in single-player games, but ways of mitigating the loss also tend to be limited (ex: a bank with a maximum gold storage) or outright nonexistent. Money also is usually far more valuable in MMORPG's than in RPG's due to not only buying gear and consumables, but also crafting materials, repairs, and various other often-expensive items such as mounts.

Back to Town: This is the final common penalty and on its own it is almost certainly the least severe. The player is simply sent back to town, either the nearest town or wherever they set as a return point and the only loss is one of travel time, not dissimilar to a checkpoint system in single-player games. Unfortunately, this is almost never the sole penalty applied to a player and Durability Loss at the very least almost always accompanies it.

In the end, the main difference between most single-player penalties and most MMORPG penalties seems to be one of just how they affect progress. Single player death penalties usually take away a certain amount of progress, either a small amount such as with a checkpoint system or a large amount such as with permanent death, while MMORPG death penalties tend to temporarily impede future progress, such as with respawn timers, resurrection sickness, or corpse and ghost running. Furthermore, MMORPG penalties have a much higher chance of being combined with each other, such as with resurrection sickness paired up with durability loss, or corpse running with money and durability loss, or other combinations of 'small' penalties designed to add up in order to hinder players both in terms of time and money.In short, single player penalties are at times frustrating, but motivating, while MMORPG penalties are almost consistently tedious and boring.

While it would perhaps seem ideal to not have any penalties at all, the fact of the matter is they serve a useful purpose in any game. In single player games, they give us an incentive to play well and raise the tension without usually having much in the way of actual consequence; the experience is a more potent one due to the risk of a penalty. For multiplayer games, they are designed more as deliberate timesinks, ways to help keep players attached to the same game for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours over a significant span of time, yet without such timesinks it is highly unlikely that any MMORPG developer could generate quality content at a fast enough rate to satisfy the majority of their audience; our death literally help contribute to keeping their games alive.

Something for the Index

It's a bit later than I initially intended, but the blog finally has an Index page. I'll probably fiddle with the categories over time, but for now I'm happy with how it turned out, so be sure to give it a shot if you don't feel like browsing chronologically!

In other news, I have at this point uploaded videos for slightly over half of the games developed by Lazy Brain Games to my YouTube channel and will have the rest uploaded by the end of the month.

As for updates for the blog itself, the second half of Video Game Death Penalties should be up within a week's time. In addition, while I won't devote a post purely to a single game by Lazy Brain Games, I'll make a post giving brief impressions on all thirteen of them after all of their respective videos have been uploaded to YouTube.

Lastly, I would like to mention that while I have not given any recommendations for indie RPG's recently, I have written quite a few reviews of them over on rpgmaker.net and I would recommend Homage and Shukumei Star in particular.

Well, that's it for now! However, if anyone knows of any at least somewhat obscure freeware games they would like to see me blog about or make a video of, feel free to let me know either by posting here or sending me a message!

Temporary Focus on Videos

So, I haven't made a post here in a while and posting in general is likely going to be slow for a bit longer. As the title of this post suggests, I will instead temporarily be focusing on making videos of games and uploading them on YouTube as I want to become more familiar with video creation and editing. Unlike previous videos, I also plan to include annotations, so making blog posts in addition to the videos would be somewhat redundant (though I will likely still be making a few posts this month not related to specific games, such as the second half of Video Game Death Penalties).

To begin with, I will be taking a look at most, if not all, of the games made by Lazy Brain Games, which I only discovered very recently and instantly fell in love with. These games tend to be very short, around ten minutes each, so expect to se the games covered from beginning to end.

I will also be creating an 'Index' page for this blog in the near future to sort these posts into categories to make them easier to navigate between than Blogger's standard date-based sorting allows.

Lastly, here is a link to my YouTube channel where all these videos will be posted in addition to several existing videos of various indie games.

The Battle of Olympus: Snakes and Bats

As the previous entries in Backlog Bonanza Month were for newer games, I decided to take a look at something older, a NES game titled The Battle of Olympus which was published by Brøderbund and developed by Infinity. The combat is frustrating, there is plenty of tedious grind, you are likely to spent half your time getting hit into pits by various forms of wildlife, and it is still somehow a very enjoyable game.

But before looking at the game itself, it may be interesting to take a glance at the publisher and developer. The developer is Infinity, best known for...well, nothing really. Infinity is a company which is nearly impossible to find any information on and any information which I could find was sparse and often contradictory, although it does seem like the vast majority of their works were only released in Japan, so The Battle of Olympus is quite the outlier. Brøderbund on the other hand is far more well-known, or at least it was, as they were the developers of the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? series. While Brøderbund mainly stuck to publishing and developing computer games, and most of them education in nature, the list of their published NES games is overflowing with obscure delights. To name a few, the infamously maligned Deadly Towers, the loved/hated obscure/famous classic Spelunker, the impressive-for-its-time Lode Runner, the much-adored The Guardian Legend, and the also-adored-yet-way-more-obscure Legacy of the Wizard. As for The Battle of Olympus itself, it's a perfect fit for this list with its blend of impressive innovation and confusing frustration as well as its largely unknown status.

The plot of the game is simple enough as Orpheus must rescue his beloved Helene from Hades, but must first find the three nymphs which will give him fragments of Helene's love which, in turn, open the path to the underworld through the magic of NES logic. Of course, none of this is explained by the game itself and the male and female leads are both nameable without any default names in place. Oddly enough, this lack of in-game background information works in the game's favor.

The Battle of Olympus is a game which places a heavy emphasis upon exploring various locations in Greece (though Mount Olympus itself never makes an appearance) and this is where the bulk of the game's strength lies. Similar to games such as Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, there are various NPC's which give hints about secret locations or the effects of the many items players will collect. However, unlike most similar games from the NES era, NPC's are scattered all throughout the game and some of the ones with the most valuable information are outright hidden, which goes a long way towards encouraging players to explore everywhere. The hints themselves are also well-done as they are often somewhat vague or refer to items and places the player may not yet have encountered, but they are never overly obtuse nor outright useless; some hints even give pieces of the plot so players can gradually come to understand just what the goal is and what they have to do in order to achieve it even without the manual.

Items play a crucial role in The Battle of Olympus and are divided between weapons, support items, and items which grant passive benefits. Each area of this rather open game has one of the Greek gods in a temple and each god will either grant or sell a player something useful (they also give out passwords after you've taken their item). However, the temples themselves are often well-hidden and their entrances aren't marked, so it can take quite a bit of effort to find each god. There is no leveling up in this game either and instead players must find or buy pieces of Ambrosia to grant a hefty health boost while other passive items hidden throughout the game can do anything from helping to defend against fire to permanently doubling the protagonist's attack power. Of course, items themselves do not give descriptions and players will need to rely upon information gained from NPC's to discover just what each object even does and where to use it. The actual effects of many items are also frequently fun, such as an ocarina which summons a dolphin players can ride in order to cross water or some sandals from Hermes which not only increase jump height, but which also allow the player to outright flip in the air and start walking upside down on the ceiling.

As much fun as combat and exploration are in this game, the same cannot be said for the combat. The range of any given weapon is painfully small and Orpheus simply thrusts weapons in front of him instead of swinging in an arc, sort of like a sidescrolling equivalent of Lagoon. While there are plenty of mythological creatures, such as a harpy, a gorgon, a centaur, several cyclopes, and Hades himself, these are generally reserved as boss or miniboss fights (and their hitboxes tend to be painfully small anyway) and the vast majority of enemies instead consists of various forms of wildlife, such as bats, monkeys, caterpillars, birds which drop extremely-damaging rocks, many types of snakes, and the inevitable slime. Most of these enemies are also very small and either fly down from the ceiling or crawl along the ground, which is a problem since Orpheus lacks not only an overhead swing, but also any form form of downward attack. So, combat generally involves waiting for an enemy to either swoop down or leap up and then counterattacking right before it makes contact. This is somewhat alleviated by the Staff of Fennel, a very fun weapon which allows Orpheus to fling out fireballs in an arc which then proceed to slide along the ground, but the staff is acquired early in the game and never receives an upgrade after players learn how to fling fireballs from it, so it quickly becomes too weak to be a viable option against most enemies later on (though it always works wonders against bats). Otherwise, combat usually devolves into jamming on the attack button in a desperate attempt to land a few hits against small enemies attacking from every direction with the intent of knocking players into one of the many, many pits.

There is also the matter of the grind involved. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes items must be purchased from gods or other NPC's. The currency used in The Battle of Olympus is, for whatever reason, red orbs referred to as 'olives' and these sometimes drop from enemies. Most of the purchasable items also cost somewhere in the 60-80 olives range, which may not seem that bad. Unfortunately, even at the end of the game enemies never drop more than one olive per kill, resulting in a bare minimum of nearly 100 kills per item, but realistically 80 olives takes several hundred kills over the course of at least a half hour even at a good grind spot. Furthermore, dying (and it is very easy to die in this game thanks to all the pits) cuts the current amount of olives the player has in half, meaning players must either find a good general grinding spot and pray that they can make it to whichever NPC is selling the item they want without a bat/monkey/snake/slime/caterpillar/bird knocking them into a pit or stick to near the NPC's location and grind off of enemies which likely take longer to kill.

Despite these shortcomings, The Battle of Olympus is great choice for anyone looking for an old-fashioned action adventure game with a heavy emphasis on exploration and discovery.

The Battle of Olympus can currently be found on Amazon and eBay for as low as $2.71
The rather impressive 8-bit rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor which plays in each god's temple can be found here
As has become custom, here is a link to the Backloggery

Brilliant B Games: Legend of Zelda: Dark Dreams

A game does not always have to be 'well-made' to be 'fun'. In fact, I would argue that some of the most enjoyable games out there are some of the most poorly made. Like a good B movie, a good 'B game' fails spectacularly in one or more areas, such as in aesthetics, level design, balancing, controls, and/or writing, yet does so in a way which is neither frustrating nor boring. Thus I present Legend of Zelda: Dark Dreams, an RPG which crosses the Zelda series with the Kingdom Hearts series and fails on nearly every front; I have played it for about a dozen hours and enjoyed every minute of it.

So, how bad are we talking here? Well, this should give you an idea:

Cropped to perfection

  Right, so let's start with the plot. Sora, Donald, and Goofy appear mysteriously in the world of Hyrule and all come down with a bad case of plot amnesia before becoming friends with Link. Then 'Dark Dreams' appear and the group decides to stop them, but then Organization XIII show up too and then Ganondorf gets thrown in there somewhere. To say that it's a mess would be an understatement, but the game certainly does try. The writing 'quality' is where the plot truly shines though as rarely does a textbox go by without a few spelling and grammar errors ranging anywhere from the infamous 'i' to consistently using 'horrids' in place of 'hordes' and incorrectly spelling 'resurrection' no less than three times in a row with a different misspelling each time. The writing alone is likely worth playing through the game for, but Legend of Zelda: Dark Dreams has far more to offer.

Progression is completely broken. While players can walk to any dungeon from the Hyrule Fields hub, each boss gives a different 'Element' item upon defeating it which is used to open the door to the next dungeon; which dungeon the 'next' dungeon actually is is rarely indicated so this becomes a game of guess and test. But that's entirely fine since you can just skip most of the game anyway. One of the very last areas in the game is not actually sealed off and can be accessed at any point after the first dungeon so it's entirely possible to powerlevel off of the enemies in the area and kill its boss in order to simply skip over half the game. The events meant to delete boss fights are also broken, so any boss in the game can be refought infinitely simply by backtracking to its room.

Ability and gear progression is equally as broken. As a nice touch, there is a new subweapon to be found for Link in just about every dungeon. However, these subweapons can only be used in combat and are utterly useless as the abilities Link learns through simply leveling up are significantly stronger. Link's abilities in general are a mess though as ones which are learned earlier and cost lower amounts of MP frequently deal far more damage than supposedly stronger skills. Sora gets an absurd amount of keyblades to wields, probably at least as many as all the weapons the other three party members get combined, and some of these have interesting gimmicks attached to them, such as having a chance to double the party's experience or granting an increase in gold drops, but many of the gimmicks are also worthless, such as ones with extremely low damage and an element attached to them. Sora also spends a good chunk of the beginning of the game being nearly worthless, but he becomes astoundingly useful at level 25 when he learns Wind Raid, the first and only multi-target skill the party will have between them for quite a while. Donald has an absurd amount of skills with three spells for just about every element, all the healing spells in the game, and multi-target versions of every single status ailment for a grand total of 34 spells; Donald learns all ten of his status ailment spells at the same time when he hits level 30. In contrast, Goofy barely gets any weapons at all, though his weapons grant an extremely useful boost to his defense, and learns all of six spells throughout the game, all of which are damage-based, so thre is never any reason to use an older spell once Goofy learns a newer, stronger one.

You may be wondering about just what you're looking at in the picture above. Well, let me introduce you to the joy of basic design in Legend of Zelda: Dark Dreams. The Minish Cap sprite of Link is easy enough to discern, though the back end of his cap magically wraps around to hit him in the face while he's walking around, and Sora's sprite is fine too, but where are Donald and Goofy in all this? Well, the very blue man wearing yellowish-brown shorts is Donald, presumably because Donald tends to wear blue, and what looks to be a zombie soldier is, in fact, Goofy, presumably because pale green skin is the equivalent of wearing a green shirt in the world of this game. Ah, but where is this very square, vaguely demonic, and somewhat cave-like place with doors in front of doors and some questionably-attached stairs? Why, it's the inside of Hyrule Castle of course! Yes, the map design is frequently nonsensical in this game and more than once I had no idea what I was even looking at as floor tiles and objects are flung about haphazardly. Dungeons are generally very short, usually consisting of only about three to five rooms, and just about every room in the game, dungeon or otherwise, is a giant, mostly empty square with objects and treasure chests thrown about seemingly at random. Dungeons are also very formulaic as almost without exception they will have a narrow bridge near the end with a very easy miniboss fight consisting of three slightly strong-than-usual (though on some occasions far weaker than usual) enemies and after defeating the boss of a dungeon players will be teleported to a very empty field where they will encounter and immediately fight one of the many members of Organization XIII. It's atrocious and repetitive level design, but is so astoundingly mesmerizing that it becomes outright amusing.

Combat is broken, but in a way which is actually quite fun. Even the earliest bosses in the game tend to have skills which can one-shot a party members or even outright wipe out the whole party. However, this is balanced out by the fact that, aside from some bosses near the very end, any status ailment will work on just about any boss. Does the boss have an attack which can slaughter the entire party in one round? Just have Donald cast Blizzard on it for a chance to Freeze it for several rounds and have Sora and Link use their respective skills which have a chance to inflict Stun to ensure that the boss never gets a chance to do anything at all. Does the boss have several hundred thousand health? That's fine too, just have Donal use Mass Venom on it and it will lose about 10% of its maximum health per round while your party focuses on defending and healing. Nearly any physical skill in the game can one-shot party members, but Full Tonics both revive and heal to full and are quite cheap while Donald's second resurrection spell states that it revives an ally with 75% health, but really rings them back with full health anyway. Late game fights unfortunately devolve into everyone spamming their strongest skills while Donald constantly full-heals the party, but until that point there is a surprising amount of odd, horribly broken depth to the combat as bosses and normal enemies with cheap skills must be countered with equally overpowered abilities in order to stay alive.

Yes, the entrance to this 'pyramid' is marked by cacti

Lastly, this game actually has quite a bit of stuff to do. For example, there is a blacksmith which can upgrade shields and weapons into much stronger pieces of gear as long as you've found the appropriate crafting materials. There is also the pyramid arena, which consists of nine set of ten fights; completing the most difficult of these sets grants access to the Expert set and, upon beating all ten rounds of this one, players can access to a miniature dungeon filled with great treasure, high-level enemies, and an optional boss. There are even several (often broken in one way or another) sidequests scattered throughout the game and three very challenging (unbalanced) optional bosses which can be fought at any time. Furthermore, finishing the game grants access to the massive 'Cave of Remembrance' which contains rooms related to each of the dungeons in the game, stronger versions of every dungeon's boss, and literally dozens of new bosses as well as four different boss rushes.

The final thing which really skyrockets this game into the realm of B game perfection though is something not even within the game itself. The site which this game can be found on only has one review for it. Said review is titled "Good Game!", the reviewer gave it an 8 out of 10, and the review in its entirety reads as "This game by far is probably one of the greatest i've played". Said review is also marked as being submitted by Duncanrpg2011, who also just so happens to be listed as the developer of this game.

Legend of Zelda: Dark Dreams can be found at rpgrevolution.com here
The working download for the newest version of the game can be found at RapidShare here
A fight I recorded against an optional boss can be found here

Vexx: A Poorly-Paced Product of Its Time

I may have played the Playstation 2 version of Vexx, but everything about it screams 'early Xbox'. During the early 2000's there was an odd trend in the industry where everyone seemed to want to make 'edgy' platforming protagonists, sort of like with the endless Sonic clones back in the 90's except with a bit more of a 'mature' feel to the humor to make them more appealing to adults as well as kids. The Playstation 2 tended to get protagonists which leaned more towards whimsy, such as Jak and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank, while the Xbox got the more 'twisted' characters such as Blinx and Voodoo Vince.

Vexx is a game which tries so hard to be edgy that not only does it have two X's in its protagonist's name, but every single letter ends in a sharpened edge whenever possible. Vexx himself never speaks a word, but the basic plot is one of revenge and Vexx's weapon of choice is, of course, a pair of ever-so-edgy claws. Of course, all this edginess is, for better or worse, watered down by the fact that very little in the world of Vexx is 'edgy' with tasks even early in the game consisting of things such as fighting a giant sumo wrestler on top of a giant tree and playing a game of Breakout on a giant 'not-Xbox'.

At its core, Vexx is a Super Mario 64 clone. Players gradually unlock new worlds, each of which contains eight to ten 'Wraithearts' (stars); it comes as little surprise that one Wraithheart in each world is obtained by collecting 100 fragments (coins) while another in each world always appears after finding six jars containing ancestral spirits (red coins). Unlike stars in Super Mario 64 it doesn't matter which one the player selects to go after as the only thing which changes is a set of arrows which help point the way towards the selected heart. The clues for hearts are also written in the form of four-line rhyming poems which sometimes are clever, but which usually feel forced and hilariously bad.

Vexx can perform some very basic ground and air combos, but he never learns new attacks and the enemies rarely pose much of a direct threat (the threat of being knocked into a bottomless pit is almost always present though). Vexx can also fill up a sort of 'rage meter' by performing air juggles and this will let him briefly move much faster and shoot projectiles, but since the game itself focuses far more on platforming than upon combat, it is rarely useful and even less so as it takes a second to activate, meaning any combat-intensive situation would likely lead to Vexx simply getting hit while entering this state. This isn't to say that Vexx never gets any new abilities at all as he gets two, both early in the game; a molten armor upgrade(metal Mario) can be used for a few seconds after stepping on certain pads and makes Vexx very slow, but invincible and able to rapidly build up momentum while a flight upgrade (flight cap) lets him fly for a few seconds. Neither upgrade is particularly fun to use, but it hardly matters as they are used for a combined total of only slightly over half a dozen times throughout the game anyway.

Otherwise, Vexx has a fairly standard array of platforming protagonist abilities, just as wall jumping (so rarely used that I forgot it existed for most of the game), long jumping, high jumping, an aerial kick which serves as a sort of double jump, swimming (there's quite a bit of swimming in Vexx, but the controls are surprisingly decent after a while), and, of course, climbing. Yes, Vexx must absolutely love slowly climbing up walls and hanging from ledges as the game constantly has players climbing up one thing or another without anything in the way of danger. While the odd obsession with 'verticality' in the video game industry didn't truly take off until later on with games such as Assassin's Creed and Uncharted, the beginnings of this trend are clear to see in Vexx as aside from the excessive amounts of tedious climbing, platforming tends to move in an upward spiral far more often than not. Yet, Vexx could have been a fairly decent Super Mario 64 clone if it wasn't for one overarching issue - the pacing.

In a previous article, I discussed how pacing is an important element of games which is easy for developers to overlook and which often leads people to describe games which handle it poorly as 'just being bad' without quite being able to place what it is about the game which makes it that way. Such is the case with Vexx as it fails at pacing in quite possibly every way possible.

The plot is one of the more obvious, though also one of the least important, examples of something which suffers from poor pacing. Vexx opens with a longwinded cutscene which nevertheless rushes to explain how Vexx's peaceful village was attacked, the villagers were forced into slavery, how Vexx's grandfather sacrificed his life so that Vexx could escape, and of how Vexx stumbled upon the magical 'ancient edgy claws' and seeks revenge; it probably would have made sense to let the player actually play through some of this instead of cramming it all together in a giant glob, but oh well. However, after this cutscene and the tutorial, there is another brief cutscene, then another at the halfway point of the game, and one more after the final boss battle and that's it. While one might say "But Super Mario 64 had even fewer cutscenes than that", that game also had previously established characters in a more lighthearted and simplistic world and, most importantly, still had various NPC's to interact with from time to time while Vexx contains less than half a dozen NPC's in its entirety, none of which get more than one line of dialogue, and this results in the world feeling completely dead and lifeless.

The more serious pacing issues reside within the gameplay itself though. Vexx is not a game which is particularly fond of anything resembling a checkpoint. It will checkpoint players when they enter a structure in one of its levels (i.e. anything which requires a loading screen), but not at any other time. As I mentioned before, Vexx is a game which loves the concept of verticality and this quickly becomes an issue as it also loves excessively long platforming segments filled with traps designed to knock the player off of ledges. These segments can go on for anywhere from five to ten minutes and, while most games with such segments will aline the platforms in such a way that being knocked off of one simply drops the player down a single layer, Vexx is a game where such 'passive checkpointing' is nearly unheard of and instead players will find themselves constantly either knocked off of ledges into instant-death pits or onto a ledge at the very bottom even after making it to the final stretch. Narrow ledges and quickly-spinning platforms which force the player to move at a slow pace in order to not fall are also extremely common and needing to repeat these segments over and over is especially tedious.

The issue of a lack of checkpointing is compounded by the other pacing issue of excessive load times. Never before has a game made me realize just how truly impressive the nearly seamless world of Jak and Daxter was for its time, especially since Vexx came out a few years later. When starting up Vexx, a player must sit through the usual developer and publisher logos before the title loads up, then players must load their actual saved game to be sent into the hub, the hub is a bland and small circular room so players must then sit through yet another loading screen as they choose which world to go through and, since most Wraithearts are hidden inside of structures, players will often need to sit through yet another loading screen a short time later as they enter a structure within the world; at one point there is a cube which must be rotated to enter it through each of its six sides and solve short platforming puzzles and there is a loading screen for each side. Just in case anyone still thinks this is a tolerable amount of loading, getting a Game Over sends players all the way back to the Activision logo so that they can sit through the entire process all over again. These frequent, long loading times and the almost complete lack of checkpoints makes the more challenging later areas of the game simply painful and not even remotely fun to play through.

Boss fights are, of course, also not untouched by pacing woes. Vexx has a whopping four boss fights, two of which are against the aforementioned sumo wrestler. Since this is a game which at least tries to have some sort of combo-based fighting system, one would think that these boss fights would at least be intense and would involve making use of fast reflexes and stringing together combos. Instead, every boss fight is yet another exercise in tedium as, without exception, they are of the 'waiting' variety. In other words, every single boss in the game is impossible to hit for most of the fight, but will occasionally use an attack which will leave it vulnerable for a few seconds; the sumo at least needs to be attacked repeatedly to push him off a ledge, but the other two only allow Vexx to get in one hit before restarting their patterns. The final boss in particular is a nightmarish accumulation of everything wrong with Vexx as his first phase generally lasts for about five minutes and consists of nothing except him sending wave after wave of weak enemies at Vexx and occasionally tossing some fireballs; Vexx can finally directly attack him in the second phase, but he takes off a third of Vexx's health with each hit and it takes a long time to land the five hits needed to enter the third phase (which is, of course, filled with instant-death pits). Dying at any point in this excessively long boss fight will naturally place players all the way back at the beginning.

In the end, Vexx could have been a decent platformer, but the plethora of pacing issues present within it makes the whole thing a chore which starts out 'ok' and which only gets less fun to play as it goes on (the camera's also not so great either, though still infinitely better than Herdy Gerdy's). While Herdy Gerdy is a flawed game which still may prove enjoyable for some, the flaws in Vexx turn it into an entirely miserable experience beyond the first half and it would be hard to recommend it to anyone but the most persistent of players.

Vexx can be found on Amazon or eBay for as low as $0.99 and is available on the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.
As usual, to celebrate Backlog Bonanza Month, here is once again a link to the Backloggery.

Herdy Gerdy: A Tale of Cameras and Confusion

Backlog Bonanza Month at last kicks off with a long-forgotten little oddity on the PlayStation 2 which goes by the name of Herdy Gerdy. Reception to this game has been split rather evenly as most reviewers seem to either despise it or view it as a brilliant, if flawed, classic. After having played through this game to completion, it has become fairly easy to see why reception has been so thoroughly split over the years, so let's go take a look.

Let's start with the obvious; Herdy Gerdy is a puzzle platformer about a boy named Gerdy and the gameplay revolves around him herding various animals into pens Pied Piper-style. One sentence in and the reasons for the divisive reception already begin to become apparent as, yes, this game is more or less made up of a string of ever-so-frequently-loathed 'escort missions'. Thankfully, Gerdy is a bit more of a literal Pied Piper than usual as the main method of herding most of the animals in the game is to play a flute which will cause a group of nearby animals to gather around and march behind Gerdy in a straight line. Not so thankfully, the AI issues which typically make escort missions such a chore are still somewhat present here as it is not entirely uncommon for one or two of the creatures near the back of the line to get stuck on a wall, fall off a ledge, or simply take a step into the ever-so-deadly water.

The aesthetics also are an entirely mixed bag. The game generally looks nice, being a product of the cel-shading craze at the time, but the design of the character models themselves ranges from bland to weird and the facial animations characters make, especially Gerdy's abnormally huge never-ending grin when he's just standing around, range from bizarre to outright creepy. The music is actually one of the strongest points of Herdy Gerdy and is wonderful to listen to, the song Gerdy plays when using his flute even varies based upon the current level's tune, but there also simply aren't all that many songs in the game so most of them get reused over and over. As for the voice acting, it's impressive that what seems to be a fairly low-budget game from 2002 is fully voice-acted, but the less said about the general quality the better, so I think I'll just let it speak for itself.

Yet if there is one aspect of Herdy Gerdy which I suspect most people can agree upon, it is the camera. Cameras in games have greatly improved over the years, but when the PlayStation hit many developers had trouble figuring out how to make a good camera for 3D environments and even when the PlayStation 2 rolled around developers still had a few kinks to work out. With this in mind, I can safely say that Herdy Gerdy still has such an exceptionally bad camera that it is not only poor for its time, but may very well be one of the worst cameras I've ever seen in a game on any console. Herdy Gerdy provides players with three different perspectives to toggle between - an entirely useless up-close view, a nearly-as-useless 'normal' view which is still far too closely zoomed in, and a somewhat tolerable overhead 'shepherd's view'. The camera constantly fights the player as sometimes it will let the player rotate it and other times it will refuse to budge, sometimes it will get stuck inside a wall, or sometimes the 'shepherd's view' will decide to put a tree, wall, or some other piece of the environment between itself and Gerdy, forcing the player to either remain completely blind to what's going on or to temporarily switch to one of the other far-worse views. Of course, many times the camera simply won't care which view the player wants and it will remain zoomed in on all three views; this usually happens inside winding passages, on ledges, or sometimes even near deep water or the herd-eating Gromps (which are the only real enemy in the entire game and which themselves must be lured into traps) just to add to the fun.

The other major issue Herdy Gerdy has is it doesn't seem to quite know what it wants to do with its mechanics. For example, 100 bells are hidden in every level and collecting all of them unlocks some interesting concept art or unused animations, but nearly all of the early-game levels hide a handful of these bells in places which Gerdy is incapable of accessing until he obtains other abilities far later in the game; bells reset upon leaving a level, so it is far too easy to spend a fair amount of time collecting nearly all of them only to discover that the last handful are hidden away somewhere Gerdy just can't quite reach. At other times, the game becomes outright counter-intuitive with the bells and certain ledges; the pink, bear-like Gromps will knock Gerdy into the air and back to the start of the level (and then proceed to eat his herd) if they catch him, but in certain locations they will instead knock Gerdy up onto an unseen ledge with a few bells which otherwise cannot be accessed, leading to one of the strangest cases of guess-and-test gameplay I have ever seen. The issue with bells gets more bizarre in the later levels as paths start to appear which only open up after Gerdy has collected a certain number of bells in the level, transforming them from an optional collectible to an essential gimmick; many late-game levels even require Gerdy to collect all 100 bells (bells are thankfully at least easier than usual to find in these levels), which completely eliminates any sense of achievement gained from unlocking the concept art from that level.

Herding itself is also an odd gimmick. Gerdy generally has to successfully herd a certain percentage of animals into their proper pens to unlock paths to new levels, but there is no reason given for why the citizens of the world of Herdy Gerdy are so in love with the concept of herding as only rarely does an NPC come along whom actually needs help herding animals for one reason or another; unlocking a new level itself is strange as it requires finding and talking to an old gypsy after attaining the required herding percentage, but even these gypsies give absolutely no reason for their herding requirements other than telling Gerdy something along the lines of "you still need to herd more animals before I can take you to the next level" (and yes, the game constantly breaks any sense of immersion by having characters refer to areas as 'levels' and making other blatant gameplay-based references). In fact, aside from a very small amount of endgame stages which require all of the animals to be properly herded, there is absolutely no incentive to do so; a "stage clear" message will appear after all of the animals have either been herded or died and sometimes an NPC will give Gerdy some of the bells for a level when this occurs, but not even so much as the message changes when this 'stage clear' is completed when it is achieved entirely through proper herding, so in an unintentionally morbid twist the game encourages players to simply lead the herds into various deathtraps after the next area has been unlocked.

Lastly, Herdy Gerdy just doesn't seem to know what to do with itself in general. The game keeps track of a player's 'fastest time' for each level in an attempt to add replayability, but herding itself is a rather slow, often even tedious, process which is completely at odds with this more arcade-based gimmick. The story bounces around all over the place with mini-arcs which generally go absolutely nowhere, friends and antagonists who appear for all of one area and are never seen again, and a main plot which begins with Gerdy's father somehow being placed under a sleeping spell by a rival whom Gerdy must defeat in a tournament to Gerdy needing to defeat this same rival in order to save his island from danger despite the fact that I do not believe it is ever mentioned as to just why the entire island is apparently in danger in the first place. To add to the confusion, Herdy Gerdy is an attempt at a typical 'coming of age' story as Gerdy grows to become a 'great shepherd', but, as has already been mentioned, there is never any sort of explanation given as to why shepherds are so important in Gerdy's world and Gerdy himself only rarely says anything beyond making noises of confusion/surprise or giving single-word responses, meaning he never really grows as a character because there is simply not much to him to begin with. Even the level unlocks make little sense as there are often multiple paths Gerdy can take, but all except one will almost always be blocked off in one way or another, resulting in a far more linear type of progression than the world map would indicate.


Overall, Herdy Gerdy isn't a terrible game, but it isn't a very enjoyable one either. It has some nice touches and certainly seems to have had a lot of effort put into it, but the mechanics are simply all over the place and rarely work together well while the camera is bad enough that there were more than a few times during my playthrough where I simply decided to quit because I was sick of fighting it nearly every step of the way. Still, some people clearly are able to forgive Herdy Gerdy's shortcomings and have enjoyed it immensely and it's hard to argue against at least giving the game a try when it can be found for as little as $0.01 (plus shipping of course) online.

Herdy Gerdy can be purchased online from Amazon or eBay for as low as $0.01 used and under $10 new.
In honor of Backlog Bonanza Month, here is once again a link to the excellent Backloggery.